Crews to restart spinning cable for new bridge

Builders of the new Tacoma Narrows bridge will resume work Monday on the second of the bridge’s two main cables following a four-month delay caused by corroded wire.

Cable-spinning crews will work two 10-hour shifts, six days a week, to finish the job, said Claudia Cornish, spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation. Tacoma Narrows Constructors expects to finish the north cable in about seven weeks, she said.

Spinning on the north cable was suspended in November after crews discovered stockpiles of cable wire were covered with “white rust,” an unstable oxide of zinc galvanizing.

TNC was forced to seek emergency replacement for the ruined wire in factories in South Korea, China and the United Kingdom. Not all of the replacement wire will have arrived by the time spinning starts, Cornish said. The wire will continue to be delivered as spinning continues.

Crews had enough good wire to finish the south cable but stopped with five of 19 strands finished on the north cable.